Memoir Monday... The Book of Sheen

 

I remember Charlie Sheen in his early days in movies such as Platoon and Major League. And then my thoughts turn to crazy Charlie Sheen who did these crazy things that created lots of drama. Quite a few actors follow this path and then are saved from themselves. I recently saw Charlie Sheen on a talk show and was amazed at how honest he was about his past and how proud he was of his being sober for the past 8 years (He should be proud, it's a life saving accomplishment!). He was funny, self deprecating and I became interested in how he had turned his life around. His memoir, The Book of Sheen, reveals all of that...

The Book of Sheen by Charlie Sheen... " For the first time, Charlie Sheen, the star of Platoon, Wall Street, Major League, and Two and a Half Men, writes the story of his extraordinary life in an unfiltered memoir.

“We can live the stories or hear about them later from others. I choose the former.”

Charlie Sheen should not be alive to write this book.

But in The Book of Sheen, the movie and TV star, who has defied the odds, finally presents his story, in his own words. Charlie Sheen was born the third of four children to actor Martin Sheen and his wife, Janet. He grew up on film sets—from his father’s all over the world, to his own in Malibu. There he made ambitious Super 8s, with a roster of friends who went on to become household names themselves, including his brother Emilio, Sean and Chris Penn, and the Lowe brothers.

Sheen broke into movies in the 1980s, playing a hoodlum in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a young soldier in Platoon, and an ethically compromised trader in Wall Street. But somewhere along the way, despite a successful transition to TV leading man in Spin City and Two and a Half Men, Sheen descended into a vortex of extracurricular activities.

Now sober, Sheen delivers a clear-eyed narrative of his highs and lows with humor, candor, and a vivid, captivating writing style that is uniquely his. The Book of Sheen comes across like a far-fetched, overstuffed novel of Hollywood life—yet it is all true.

Published by Gallery Books Sept. 9th, 2025, this book is now available at your favorite book seller... and it's on my wishlist. Some celebrity memoirs are the same old stuff, but I think this one is destined to be a page turner.

Do you ever get the "feelies"?

I haven't read a Dan Brown book since The DaVinci Code, which was a very long time ago (I talked about this last Sunday). But when I was reading the description of The Secret of Secrets, Dan Brown's newest offering, it really sounded like something I could get into... and I bought a copy. The first thing I noticed as I opened the book was... the paper. Not just because it had words on it and I was going to start reading it, but the paper was.... luxurious! The feel of the paper was silky smooth and the weight of the paper, as I lifted one between my fingers, was wonderful... I was doing the "feelies"... feeling the pages between my fingers.

This is one reason people love real books! This tactile feel makes for a connection you just can't make with an ebook. And where most of my books these days are trade paperbacks, with pages that have a more rough feel, like recycled paper, The Secret of Secrets hardcover was a different animal. 

Publishers have a lot of choices when it comes to actually publishing the book. There are choices in covers (french flaps, anyone?), the weight of the paper, the finish of the paper, the font, the size of the font, deckle edges maybe? Now we have spray painted paper edges too. They also have a choice between hardcover and paperback. (Back in the day, most books were published in hardcover first with the paperback following about a year later. Nowadays, the trend for a lot of books is to go right to a trade paperback). With all these choices how do they decide? (I'm not sure, but I am going to try and find out...)

Do you like the feel of a real book?

I can't remember the last book that had pages that felt this way. Now I'm going to have to grab all my hardcovers and feel the pages....

Do you prefer "real" books, aka physical books, or ebooks? Hardcovers or Paperbacks? Let's talk! Let me know in comments below how you feel about the books you are reading!

Happy reading... Suzanne

Memoir Monday... Softly I Leave You by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley

 

Their love story mesmerized the world... or at least every girl who wished they were Priscilla. Imagine being plucked out of the audience of your favorite pop star because he chose YOU to love?! But the fairy tale turned to something else. We were all sad for Priscilla, we all wondered how could she leave him? And now we can read in Priscilla Beaulieu Presley's own words how life was after Elvis. This is her story...

Softly, As I Leave You by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley... "Priscilla Presley’s divorce from Elvis left his fans incredulous. How could she leave the man every woman wanted? From the outside, life in Elvis’s mansion looked glamorous and enviable, and in many respects, it was. But inside the mansion, her husband was constantly surrounded by a male entourage while at the gates, lines of beautiful women waited hopefully for an audience with the King. From the time she was seventeen years-old, that life was all Priscilla had known. During her ten years with Elvis, it became painfully apparent that she had no idea who she was outside Elvis’s world. The only way to find herself was to leave that world and seek a new life of her own, because leaving was the only way to survive, for herself and for her daughter.

 Softly, As I Leave You, is the deeply personal story of what Priscilla lost and what she found when she walked away from the man she loved. Despite the legal separation, their love for one another transformed into a touching and tender dynamic that endured until Elvis’s untimely death four years later. Shattered by Elvis’s passing, she had to reinvent herself a second time as the single mother of a talented, often headstrong daughter who never really recovered from her father’s death. Priscilla’s dedication to motherhood was enriched by the birth of her second child, and she gradually found her footing as a businesswoman, actress, designer, and legislative advocate. She transformed Graceland into an international destination and helped guide the development of Elvis Presley Enterprises. But the unexpected, shattering loss of three immediate family members years later brought Priscilla to her knees. She shares her journey with a quiet dignity that will comfort and reassure anyone who has suffered – and survived – seemingly unbearable loss.

A passionate, compassionate, and inspiring story of finding your place in the world, Softly, As I Leave You, is a sweet Southern melody that will take the reader with Priscilla on her long road home."

In the basement of my best friend, Liz, we loved Elvis week! It was the week all of Elvis's movies were on TV. I'm pretty sure it must have been during the summer, because I don't remember having to worry about school. But we made sure we were in front of that TV in Liz's basement when the movies started. I wasn't a huge Elvis fan, I was more into the Beatles, but there's something special and mysterious about him. And Priscilla is an interesting person in her own right. So, when I heard about this book, I had to read it. 

Published recently on Sept. 23rd, 2025 by Grand Central Publishing, you can find this on the shelves of your local bookstore or library. Grand Central Publishing graciously sent me an ebook and I am turning the pages on it as we speak and enjoying it. Come back to see my full review...

The Sunday Salon...a bit of Nostalgia to Comfort you into the Future

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's the place where Book Bloggers from around the world share their bookish finds with one another in a virtual place called The Sunday Salon. Thank you to for Deb at ReaderBuzz keeping us all together on Sundays and hosting The Sunday Salon now! I also visited with Kim at The Caffeinated Reader, another Sunday gathering place for us bookish people called The Sunday Post ! It's a beautiful day in South Carolina and a perfect day to talk books. And talking books is what The Sunday Salon is all about! 

A little over 15 years ago, I started this blog. I had started a reading group with some of the people I worked with and decided it would be fun to write about all the great books we were reading and books I wanted to read. I looked back over some of those posts over the years and got a bit nostalgic. Before BookTok or streaming, before zoom and ebooks, before a lot of things, there was a group of people who loved books and loved talking about them. We found each other and visited each other's blogs and chatted about our love of books. Publishers found us too. There were no ebooks, so wonderful hardcovers & paperbacks found their way to us thru the mail. We reviewed books, helped new authors, had giveaways and did all this for our love of reading. (Omg, we even had conventions!)  It's fun to look back at those books and posts. Some of those people and their blogs are still around. Some have had life take them in other directions. But... There will always be books and we will always be talking about them... and this week are back at it! So I'm going to turn my attention from those fun early years and back to ... What we should be reading NOW! 

Remember when The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown hit the bookshelves?! It hit the publishing world like a Tsunami. EVERYone was reading it! It seemed to take over the world. I had never read Dan Brown before, but he did have one other book published before The DaVinci Code that introduced us to Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology... Angels and Demons. I remember being totally absorbed in that book. I loved it! And I wanted to read Dan Brown in order, so I naturally started reading the first book of the "Robert Langdon" books, Angels and Demons, first. Next read was The DaVinci Code. I liked The DaVinci Code ( I really thought Angels and Demons was better), and that was the last of Dan Brown for me... until now. 

No particular reason for not reading any more of Dan Brown. After The DaVinci Code, it was 6 years before his next novel and by then I was reading other authors. But feeling that bit of nostalgia, I wondered, how is Robert Langdon doing these days? Here's the intro to the new book by Dan Brown...

The Secrets of Secrets by Dan Brown... Robert Langdon, esteemed professor of symbology, travels to Prague to attend a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon—a prominent noetic scientist with whom he has recently begun a relationship. Katherine is on the verge of publishing an explosive book that contains startling discoveries about the nature of human consciousness and threatens to disrupt centuries of established belief. But a brutal murder catapults the trip into chaos, and Katherine suddenly disappears along with her manuscript. Langdon finds himself targeted by a powerful organization and hunted by a chilling assailant sprung from Prague’s most ancient mythology. As the plot expands into London and New York, Langdon desperately searches for Katherine . . . and for answers. In a thrilling race through the dual worlds of futuristic science and mystical lore, he uncovers a shocking truth about a secret project that will forever change the way we think about the human mind.

Published at the beginning of September by Doubleday and weighing in at 678 pages it's gotten good reviews... and it is on it's way to my nightstand. What do you think? Are you a Dan Brown fan? Have you been waiting for a new Dan Brown novel?

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Another nostalgic look back at beloved reads, brings me to Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. My very first review on the blog was for Pillars of the Earth. Short, sweet and to the point, I absolutely loved this book! It was over 1000 pages, but I just couldn't put it down... and neither could anyone I knew. After reading that book, it was a long time before anything else could compare. It's wonderful reading a book that really grabs you, but when you finish reading it, it's like a period of mourning because it's hard to enjoy any other read. The next book in the Kingsbridge series was  World without End, but either being totally exhausted from reading the 1000 pages of Pillars of the Earth or just not getting into it, World without End sat on my nightstand for forever, until I slipped it onto the bookshelf for "someday", which hasn't come yet. But now... Ken Follett has a new book, and a new locale... Stonehenge. Circle of Days is the newest novel from Ken Follett and here's the publisher's blurb...

Circle of Days by Ken Follett...

A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT... Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Fair, and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Her family live in prosperity and offer Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers, within their herder community. 

A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE... Joia, Neen’s sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain.

A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILISATION... Joia’s vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life’s work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders – and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare…

Truly ambitious in scope, Circle of Days invites you to join master storyteller Ken Follett in exploring one of the greatest mysteries of our age: Stonehenge.

So, is this the new Ken Follett book that is going to grip me? I hope so! And I have a ebook generously given to me by the publisher, Grand Central Publishing in my Kindle right now that I am so looking forward to reading! 

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What do you choose to read during those quiet times? The moments you just want to relax and be inspired? For some of those moments, I turn to poetry. And one of my favorite poets is Mary Oliver! When I think of Mary Oliver, I think about getting back to nature. She has an uncanny ability to breath life into the words we use to describe the natural world around us. Her book, Devotions is a staple on my coffee table in my livingroom. Unfortunately, Mary Oliver passed away in 2019, but we are left with a large body of work we can enjoy over and over. And if you've never read Mary Oliver, you are in for a treat. Her newest book is Little Alleluias and here is what the publishers say about it... 

Little Alleluias by Mary Oliver... a An archival compendium of three complete works by Mary Oliver: the book-length poem The Leaf and the Cloud, the collection What Do We Know, and essays from Long Life—with a foreword by fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Postcolonial Love Poem Natalie Diaz. For the many admirers of Mary Oliver's breathtaking poetry of touch and transcendence, as well as for those coming to her words for the first time, Little Alleluias is a revelation. These works observe, search, pause, astonish, and give thanks to both love and the natural world. In constant conversation with the sublime, (i.e. "Are you afraid? / Somewhere a thousand swans are flying / through winter's worst storm."), Oliver has the rare skill of rendering life: her poems and essays bring movement to stillness, and people to the Earth, themselves, and each other. Page by page, she invites us to walk through her minutes, her moments, and revere the light and dark and rainbowed clothes of world alongside her.

With three distinct books collected in one volume for the first time, Little Alleluias asks what passes and what persists, and offers readers the peace that every mind deserves.

Little Alleluias by Mary Oliver was published Sept. 9th, 2025 by Grand Central Publishing. I'm so lucky to have gotten an ebook copy of Little Alleluias from the publisher this week! Thank you! Look for my review of this latest book of Mary Oliver!  

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So, this week was a look back to remember what came before and a look at what has come out now... We love and follow certain authors because we love their writing, or love the world they created. I loved Robert Langdon and running around with him in Angels & Demons, so I'm excited to travel to Prague with him in The Secret of Secrets. I loved the city of Kingsbridge and the people who lived there, and I'm looking forward to getting to know the people who built Stonehenge in Circle of Days. And I've always loved sitting quietly and reflecting on the nature surrounding us thru Mary Oliver's writings, and look forward to revisiting her work, with something I've never read before. I hope you decide to come along for the adventure! But the adventure doesn't stop here. I have some other exciting reads to share in the week (and weeks) to come... and this week, something from a favorite author, who I've read every year at Christmas time, but decided to write something for... Halloween! 

What book did you love at one time and the author wrote something new that you absolutely love too?!

I hope you've found something new to read today! Stop by tomorrow to read what I've got to share for ©Memoir Monday! Midweek, we'll talk about that Halloween read... and Friday, we have something new for ©First Lines Fridays!

Happy reading... Suzanne

First Lines Friday...

  "Fingers clutching the steering wheel, the mother sat in her car, staring at the house. A narrow, rickety little shotgun shack that had somehow stood there for more than a hundred years. A sagging roof to match the sagging, postage-stamp front porch. Narrow clapboard siding that hadn't seen a fresh coat of paint in a generation. The front windows were not quite square in the wall. No light shone through the dirty glass.

    How had it come to this?"

                                                                                                ....Bad Liar by Tami Hoag

The Sunday Salon...and Did You Ever Hear About "The Women"?

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's the place where Book Bloggers from around the world share their bookish finds with one another in a virtual place called The Sunday Salon. Thank you to for Deb at ReaderBuzz keeping us all together on Sundays and hosting The Sunday Salon now! I also visited with Kim at The Caffeinated Reader, another Sunday gathering place for us bookish people called The Sunday Post ! It's been a while since I've shared a book or two. I have been reading and busier than ever since retiring, but I need to get back here... I miss sharing all the great reads I've been enjoying! So, this week, I wanted to share something recommended to me during a recent visit to the Vietnam Veterans display of The Wall that Heals...

This week, in my little town, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, The Wall That Heals came... displayed in a field, in beautiful farm land, not too far from where I live. The Wall That Heals is a replica of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial that is in Washington, DC. It also is an educational center as the trailer that brings in the memorial is turned into a learning experience with displays and information that brings what the Vietnam Veteran's experienced to life.

Even though this is a 3/4 replica of the original memorial in DC, it still has the power to move anyone who sees it. The over 58,000 names displayed is enough to silence the room, but seeing how the Veterans who visit are moved by their visit, brought tears to my eyes. 

One of the facts I learned during my visit to The Wall was that there are only 8 women whose names appear on The Wall. These 8 women were all nurses that died while serving in the Vietnam war. And on the day I visited The Wall, I sought out these women to see their names among the many. I had their names and their locations on the wall. As I stood in front of one of the panels I was approached by one of the Veteran volunteers. He asked me if I had any questions, and if I'd like to do a rubbing of any of the names on the wall. I explained to him, that I did not have any relatives engraved on the wall, but that I was amazed how there were only 8 women on the wall. We got to talking about those women and their histories. He shared his story with me, and I thanked him for his service and told him I was glad that he was able to come home and glad he was okay. "Okay is a relative word" he tells me. And I understood what he meant without further explanation... but then a strange thing happened. This Vietnam Vet, a man in his 70's, tells me if I am interested in these women, I should read, The Women by Kristin Hannah. He went on to tell me, that even though it is fiction, it really tells the story, the experience, of one woman during her time in Vietnam. He originally picked the book up because of the cover, which shows a helicopter flying over palm trees. He read it because of it's story... Here is the blurb about the book found on Goodreads...

Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided. Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost. But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm's way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

You can learn more about The Wall That Heals at Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. You can learn more about the women "on the wall" by clicking on this link.

Have you read any books about the Vietnam War? 

Fiction or Nonfiction?

The Women by Kristin Hannah was published by St. Martins Press February of 2024. You can listen to an excerpt on the publishers page.

Summer time is coming and reading is heating up along with the weather in South Carolina. I'm looking forward to sharing some great reads...

Happy reading... Suzanne

First Lines Friday... The Wedding People by Alison Espach

"...now Phoebe stands before a nineteenth-century Newport hotel in an emerald silk dress, the only item in her closet she can honestly say she still loves, probably because it was the one thing she had never worn. She and her husband never did anything fancy enough for it. They were professors. They were easygoing. Relaxed. So comfortable by the fire with the little cat on their laps. They liked regular things, whatever was on tap, whatever was on TV, whatever was in the fridge, whatever shirt looked the most normal, because wasn't that the point of clothing? To prove that you were normal? To prove that every day, no matter what, you were a person who could put on a shirt?

   But that morning, before she got on the plane, Phoebe woke and knew she was no longer normal. Yet she made toast. Took a shower. Dried her hair. Gathered her lecture notes for her second day of the fall semester. Opened her closet and looked at all the clothes she once bought simply because they looked like shirts a professor should wear to work. Rows of solid-colord blouses, the female versions of things her husband wore. She pulled out a gray one, held it up in front of the mirror, but could not bring herself to put it on. Could not go to work and stand at the office printer and hold her face in a steady expression of interest while her collegue talked at length about the surprising importance of cheese in medieval theology.

   Instead, she slipped on the emerald dress..."

                                    The Wedding People by Alison Espach

This book has gotten so much great buzz and was a Jenna Book Pick in last August. It is in my TBR pile and I'm really looking forward to sinking my teeth into it. It's all about love and friendship... what do you think about the excerpt? Does it make you want to read more? It did me...

Memoir Monday... On the Hippie Trail by Rick Steves

Growing up in the late 60's and 70's was so different than now. The concept of "Freedom" was a lot of "Drugs, Sex and Rock & Roll". Hitchhiking was a way to get from one place to another without fear.  The idea of "seeing the world" was joining the Peace Corps or striking out with your bestie to Europe and learning what hostels were... and Rick Steves lived that adventure... or at least the "striking out with your bestie to Europe" and specifically the “Hippie Trail”, an adventure route from Istanbul to Kathmandu.

When I read about Rick's book, it brought back the anticipation of adventure that was part of my soul growing up. For me, it was venturing out to "the City", art galleries, and road trips to places I've never been... and for a lot of us, that sense of adventure settles down into going to college, finding your place in the world and the soulmate you were meant to be with...

On the Hippie Trail by Rick Steves...                                                                                                                              From the publisher... "In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the storied “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul to Kathmandu. A 23-year-old Rick Steves made the trek, and like a travel writer in training, he documented everything along the way: jumping off a moving train, making friends in Tehran, getting lost in Lahore, getting high for the first time in Herat, battling leeches in Pokhara, and much more. The experience ignited his love of travel and forever broadened his perspective on the world. This book contains edited selections from Rick’s journal and travel photos with a 45-years-later preface and postscript reflecting on how the journey changed his life. Stow away with Rick Steves on the adventure of a lifetime through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               This book is on my wishlist and was published Feb. 4th by Rick Steves. 

Exciting news for Harlan Coben fans... Nobody's Fool coming this March!

 

Harlan Coben writes suspense... and he's really good at it! Nobody's Fool is his newest thriller coming out March 25th of this year, and I just received a review copy from the publisher! Let me tell you, I was hooked from the first innocent line..."Did it all go wrong the moment I saw you?"... The prologue introduces you to college graduate Sami Kierce who's taking the summer off to backpack through Europe with his college roommate and his jock friends, but a chance encounter the night before the trip, changes Kierce's plans and life... 

I am turning those pages as fast as I can! Did I say, Harlan Coben writes really good suspense? Yes, I think I did. And for good reason... "His suspense novels are published in forty-six languages and have been number one bestsellers in more than a dozen countries, with eighty million books in print worldwide"... and I am hooked on Nobody's Fool.

Here's the blurb from the publisher... "Sami Kierce, a young college grad backpacking in Spain with friends, wakes up one morning, covered in blood. There’s a knife in his hand. Beside him, the body of his girlfriend. Anna. Dead. He doesn’t know what happened. His screams drown out his thoughts—and then he runs. Twenty-two years later, Kierce, now a private investigator, is a new father who’s working off his debts by doing low level surveillance jobs and teaching wannabe sleuths at a night school in New York City. One evening, he recognizes a familiar face at the back of the classroom. Anna. It’s unmistakably her. As soon as Kierce makes eye contact with her, she bolts. For Kierce there is no choice. He knows he must find this woman and solve the impossible mystery that has haunted his every waking moment since that terrible day. His investigation will bring him face-to-face with his past—and prove, after all this time, he’s nobody’s fool."

Nobody's Fool will be published by Grand Central Publishing on March 25th and will be available at your favorite bookstore... come back soon for my full review...